Mary Ann (Nolen) Guenther, 74, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, went to be with her savior, Jesus Christ, on Aug. 23, 2015, after nine years of living with metastatic breast cancer that became progressively worse. She was a loving and positive person all her life and will be greatly missed by everyone that knew and loved her.

Mary Ann was born July 17, 1941, in Plains, Mont., to Sidney C. and Mary E. (Baldwin) Nolen. She was the youngest of three sisters including Jane and Rose Marie. The family lived in Plains for a short time and then moved to Priest River, Idaho, where Sid was a lumberman, working in the local sawmill. One of the early memories of those days in Priest River was made when they made a lunch and the girls and their mom would walk down near the mill, spread a blanket under a tree and have lunch with their dad.

After Priest River the family moved to a wide spot in the road named Tamarack, Idaho, where there was a mill at which their dad worked for awhile until they moved to Bear, Idaho, where they lived until Mary Ann was about to start the second grade. That summer the family moved to Myrtle Creek, Ore., where their dad worked in a mill until ill health caused him to retire from lumbering. They then moved to Roseburg, Ore., where her dad started working for the Veterans Hospital as did her mother, both retiring from there. Mary Ann graduated from Roseburg High School in 1959 where she was president of Girls League and was voted "girl of the year" by her classmates.

After high school, Mary Ann attended business school for a year and then married classmate, Tom Barrong. They had one son, Jeffery, who was a police officer for the Eugene Police Department. Jeff passed away in 2007. After moving to Spokane, Wash., in the early '80s, Mary Ann worked for Whitworth University for more than 20 years where she was a certification specialist in the school of education, retiring in 2003. Tom and Mary Ann divorced shortly after moving to Spokane and she provided a home for Jeff until he moved to Oregon several years later, after which she lived in Spokane until she married Bob Guenther.

Mary Ann and Bob first met on May 10, 1986, and after a long and wonderful courtship they were married on Sept. 27, 2003, in a beautiful celebration with family and friends at the Clark House on Hayden Lake. They enjoyed hiking and snowmobiling and touring in their Miata, especially traveling to the Oregon or Washington coast to eat seafood and play on the beach with family and friends. They spent five winters in their little "Park Model" at the Sunflower RV Resort in Surprise, Ariz., where they had a wonderful time until it was interrupted by the advancing cancer. Mary Ann was the love of Bob's life and best friend for 29 years and he will miss her terribly.

She is survived by her husband, Robert E. Guenther of Coeur d'Alene; sisters Jane (Bob) Schneider and Rose Bowman; nieces Justine (Chris) Bassett and Nicole (Eric) Wald; great-niece Evangeline Wald; stepdaughter Rebecca (Craig) Hamelink; stepsons Richard Guenther and Garth (Lisa) Holbert; and granddaughters Savannah and Camryn Holbert.

The funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, at First Presbyterian Church in Coeur d'Alene with Yates Funeral Home, Coeur d'Alene, in care of the arrangements. Burial will be at Coeur d'Alene Memorial Gardens. The family prefers memorials to First Presbyterian Church Memorial Fund, 521 E. Lakeside Ave., Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814. Please visit Mary Ann's online memorial and sign her guest book at www.yatesfuneralhomes.com.